Alphonso Davies Canadian Footballer Born 2000 in Buduburam

Early life

Alphonso Davies was born on 2 November 2000 in Buduburam, a refugee settlement in Ghana, to Liberian parents. His family had left Monrovia during the Second Liberian Civil War, and he was one of six siblings. In 2005 the family emigrated to Canada and settled in Edmonton, where he went to elementary and junior high school.

His first organized football came through Free Footie, an after-school league in Edmonton aimed at children who could not easily afford fees, equipment or transport. He later played for the Edmonton Internationals and the Edmonton Strikers before joining the Vancouver Whitecaps residency program in 2015. To take part, he moved to Vancouver on his own at 14 and attended Burnaby Central Secondary School. He had held Liberian nationality until he became a Canadian citizen on 6 June 2017.

Career

Davies signed with the reserve side Whitecaps FC 2 in February 2016, and the following July he agreed a first-team contract with Vancouver Whitecaps FC. He made his Major League Soccer debut a day later. Over the next two seasons he became a regular, scoring in the CONCACAF Champions League and in MLS, and he appeared in the 2018 MLS All-Star Game. He was named the club's player of the year for 2018 and also took its goal of the year award. In his last match for Vancouver he scored both goals in a 2-1 win over the Portland Timbers.

In July 2018 Vancouver announced that it had agreed his transfer to Bayern Munich, with a base fee of US$13.5 million and bonuses that could raise the total to $22 million, a record for MLS at the time. He stayed in Vancouver until the end of that season and joined Bayern in January 2019. He scored his first goal for the club in March 2019 against Mainz 05, and he was part of the squad that won the Bundesliga that season.

His breakthrough came in 2019-20, when coach Niko Kovac used him at left-back. He set up a goal for Robert Lewandowski in the Champions League round of 16 away to Chelsea, and in the Bundesliga he recorded a top speed of 36.51 km/h, a league record. Bayern won the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League that season. Davies started the final against Paris Saint-Germain and became the first Canadian international to win the Champions League. He signed an extension in April 2020 and another in February 2025 that runs to 2030. In March 2023 he played his 100th Bundesliga match, the youngest non-German to do so for the club. He scored his first Champions League goal in May 2024 in the semi-final against Real Madrid, and in April 2026 he scored in the win over VfB Stuttgart that settled the 2025-26 Bundesliga title, his seventh with Bayern.

For Canada, he was called up to youth camps before he held citizenship. After becoming a citizen he made his senior debut on 13 June 2017 against Curacao, becoming the youngest player to appear for the national team. A few weeks later at the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup he scored twice against French Guiana, and he finished the tournament as top scorer and young player of the tournament. In 2019 he scored in Nations League wins over Cuba and the United States, the latter Canada's first victory over its neighbour in 34 years.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he scored Canada's first goal at a men's World Cup in the match against Croatia. He captained Canada for the first time in June 2024 and led the side to the semi-finals of that year's Copa America, where it finished fourth. He was named captain for the 2026 World Cup, which Canada co-hosted.

Recognition

Davies was named Bundesliga Rookie of the Season for 2019-20 and finished third in the 2020 Golden Boy voting. He was chosen for the FIFPRO World 11 and the UEFA Team of the Year in 2020, and he was named CONCACAF Men's Player of the Year in 2021 and 2022. In Canada he shared the Lou Marsh Trophy in 2020 and won the Lionel Conacher Award that year. He also received a Northern Star Award in 2020.

Public roles

Davies is an ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, and was the first footballer and the first Canadian to hold the role. In April 2020 he played a virtual football match against Asmir Begovic to raise money for the agency. He is also a club ambassador for Edmonton BTB SC, where he played in his youth.